Surge in KPK Sting Operations in Central Java Triggered by Low Integrity of Public Officials
The Head of the Indonesian Ombudsman for Central Java Province, Siti Farida, has stated that the integrity of public service providers in Central Java remains low. She links this to the hand-catching operations (OTT) conducted by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in several areas of Central Java over the past three months.
Farida explained that her office assessed the public service delivery by the Central Java Provincial Government and 15 district/city governments in Central Java in 2025. In previous years, the Central Java Ombudsman’s assessments focused only on the public service processes by the providers. However, in 2025, the Central Java Ombudsman introduced a new method by incorporating assessment results or direct surveys from the public as service users.
There are four indicators directly assessed by the public: reliability, responsiveness, fairness, and integrity. “Among all the public trust indicators, the lowest score is in integrity. So, the public still doubts the integrity of public service providers,” Farida stated when providing information at her office in Semarang City on Wednesday (8/4/2026).
According to Farida, after combining the public service delivery assessments with public perceptions, the public service scores for local governments in Central Java have declined. She said that before 2025, the lowest public service delivery scores in Central Java could reach nearly perfect figures, between 95-98.
“But when we included the public assessments, the average score was only a maximum of 88. There’s a two-digit gap, more than 10 percent,” Farida said.
She views this as indicating that the Central Java public still perceives potential maladministration, such as prolonged delays, illegal levies, conflicts of interest, and others. “Now, when this maladministration emerges as a criminal act of corruption, it appears in KPK OTT operations. Like it or not, there is still a connection,” she remarked.